Purim Hoax Backfires

In what was meant to be a fun hoax for Purim, Galus Australis published an article about the (fictional) acquisition of their publication by Robert Magid, the owner of the AJN.

Sadly, the perpetrators of the hoax did not foresee some of the negative consequences. Several members of Galus’ Facebook fan site disaffiliated (or in Facebook terms, “unliked”) from the group in disgust. Several others expressed tremendous disappointment and vowed not to return to the website they now believed to be under new management. Even some regular contributors contacted the editors expressing dismay at the sale to the AJN, and stating that they would need to reconsider any future involvement they might have with the publication.

A number of readers also left comments displaying their concern or dissatisfaction with the apparent takeover. “Don’t change a thing or I won’t be coming back!” wrote one reader. Another reader wrote “We are here because it is NOT the Jewish News…Please respectfully keep that in mind Mr Magid.”

While the editors were able to reassure regular contributors that the story was only a purim hoax, unfortunately, the damage cannot be so easily undone as far as other readers and Facebook followers are concerned.

As predicted by the editors, David Werdiger, businessman as well as regular contributor on Galus, was the first to publicly expose the story as a hoax.

The editors would like to apologise for any distress caused, and they hope disgruntled former readers will come back and rejoin the Facebook group.

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